NWN2 :: HELP US Reduce Server Lag and Crashes

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2007 1:08 pm

If i can help, im a photoshop wiz. I don't have any 3d software though.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

OK folks, I have to update this thread (will update the top post very soon); We will now begin to maintain a few files in players' MyDocs/nwn2/override/DEX2_Players'_override.

We will place the files there automatically (via your World Gate Client download). They will all be kept within this one clearly marked folder (titled DEX2_Players'_override). That folder will only contain the following files:

readme.txt
Metatiles.2da
Tiles.2da
Tilesets.2da

The readme.txt file will contain some very brief information (mainly a reminder not to remove that folder while playing on DEX2, but to remove everything else in override, and include a link to this thread for details).

The other three files are required for us to be able to use some third party custom content which we have incorporated into DEX custom content. Unfortunately, there is no way to get those particular 2DAs to work while only witin the DEX.hak file itself, at least until Obisidian fixes issues with those particular 2DAs.

The third party custom content includes Robinson Workshop (RWS) Deep Environments set. This includes:

RWS Deep Chasms (we have some interior tiles from this tileset now within the Drow interior map)

RWS Deep Halls (we will use this soon within the upcoming dwarven maps)

RWS Deep Sewers (also coming soon in upcoming maps)
It is top quality modeling work which greatly expands upon the scenery available for us to work with.

Having these files in our players' override directories should not contribute any lag or potential crashes, because they will match the server files exactly.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

CURRENT #1 REASON WHY WE SUFFER FROM LAG IS:
Not all players have updated to the latest PWC and HAK changes.
Please, if in game and it starts to lag, SHOUT reminders to everyone to:
1 Update their PWC file
2 Refer to this thread for tips on how they can help reduce lag

Why? Because we have changed some 2DA files in the hak; If client and host 2DAs don't match, this has the potential to cause serious lag, even from just one or two players.

We will automate some reminders (to update PWC and HAK file) at some point, but for now, we must all rely upon each other to shout reminders, as most players don't frequent the forums and have no way of knowing when they need to upadate.

EDIT
We can eliminate this potential source of lag by using the PWC revisioning feature of Word Gate consistently. Seed had actually requested this feature from Tanita a while back.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Rob McGinnis suggested we check with another server (RP server, DragonCoast, Shores of Haldun) to see what they are doing to combat lag and transition crashes.

One thing they have is a thread similar to what we have here. The thread is a post copied and pasted from Bioware forums. Most of the content (at least the part I thought would be most easily do-able by the majority of our player base), we have integrated within our top post of this thread already. But I thought I'd include the entire post here, just in case I overlooked anything, or if some players wnated to try some of the other suggestions:

Quote:

At this stage there is little information if the transition crashes are an issue with network coding, toolset limitations, or latency between the the client and server, or a combination of all of the above. Please be aware that the information below may work for some people but not others.

1. Reducing Unnecessary Buff Graphics
The Buff graphics are great for single player, but just horrid for roleplaying or for multiplayer. Get the Buff Effects mod Personally this mod alone seems to reduced my crashing by 50%. Be aware there are two versions of the Mod available.

2. Look After your Hard Drive
Defrag your hard drive regularly. Do at least one 'check all files' Anti-virus at least once a week. Make sure your anti-virus software is up to date and is configured to check for malware and rootkits as well. Malware and other nasties will steal precious system resources and/or restrict your internet traffic.

3. Page Files
Set the Pagefile of your Windows XP computer (Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Advanced > Virtual Memory > Change to 4092 for initial and maximum size. For advanced users you may even want to put the pagefile on its own partition.

4. Graphics
- Turn Shadows OFF
- Turn Bloom effects OFF
- Turn Render Grass OFF
- Turn Water Refraction OFF
- Turn Water Reflections OFF
- Reduce Draw Distance from 300 to 200. Note: not recommended on a PvP server
- Fullscreen Mode ON

5. Limit Other Internet Activities
Do not use internet intensive programs such as downloaders, or have websites open with lots of ads at the same time you are playing. These application may increase the latency of your connection between the client and the server.

6. Turn off what is running in the background
Kill any unnecessary processes that may be running in the background. For example I turn off I-Tunes and a few other things I typically have running when I'm just web-surfing. If you are not sure on what to do, then please don't start fiddling with the Task Manager because if you stop the wrong tasks your computer will stop working and you will have to restart.

7. Routing Firewall and QoS
If you are an advanced user, you may want to check the ports on your router and enable application-based QoS (Quality of Service) for your router. If you don't know what this is, don't worry about as it is just a nice to have. However you may want to look at QoS if you are running a VOIP phone and/or other peer to peer applications on the same internet link.

Here is the list of firewall ports from the NWN2 readme file:

GameSpy Firewall Ports
When you play on a system that is behind a firewall or proxy, certain ports may need to be opened to connect to multiplayer games. Ports 3658, 3659, 6500 and 27900 may need to be opened so the GameSpy servers can see the game.

Please consult your network administrator or your router manufacturer for information on how to set up these ports. You should also install the latest firmware available for your router from the manufacturer

Opening Ports to Play Behind a Firewall
The following ports may need to be opened for GameSpy servers to see the game: 3658, 3659, 3660, 6500, 27900, 28910
GameSpy Arcade may also need the following TCP ports open in order to function properly:
- 6667 (IRC)
- 3783 (Voice Chat Port)
- 27900 (Master Server UDP Heartbeat)
- 28900 (Master Server List Request)
- 29900 (GP Connection Manager)
- 29901 (GP Search Manager)
- 13139 (Custom UDP Pings)
- 6515 (Dplay UDP)
- 6500 (Query Port)
You will also need to open the server port (5121 by default) and the following port for the game stats to be updated correctly: 29920 (Gamestats Server)

8. Refreshing the Operating System
If your computer has been running for the whole day, re-boot it before playing NWN2 to refresh the OS. If you are an advanced user you may even want to setup a separate local account that is only used to play NWN2. Tweak it so it doesn't load any other background applications except for the basic OS processes. This gives NWN2 the best possible performance footprint on your computer.

9. Traffic Shaping
Probably not an issue in the USA, but in Australia and other places some Internet Service Providers shape gaming traffic without telling their customers. Shaping basically means that traffic type gets a lower priority over other traffic, leading to higher latency and timeouts between the server and the client.

10. Caching
Note this is only for systems with 1GB RAM or more: Open up you nwn.ini file in the C:\Documents and Settings\whateveruser\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2 folder. Look for SEFCacheSize= and change the value to 50. More details Here

11. Checking Network Latency
To run a traceroute to check latency

a) Click Start and then Run

b) Type in "command" or "cmd" and press Enter
In the command window, type 'tracert pw's address here > C:\tracert.txt' (without the quotes) and press the Enter key.

c) A file will be created on your C: drive called tracert.txt that contains your Traceroute information. Please be patient when waiting for the tracert command to complete, it may take several minutes. When you are returned to the command prompt, then the trace is complete.

If you see any error messages or asterisks in your Traceroute for the hops before you reach the server, you may need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and provide them your Traceroute results for further assistance.

Advanced users may want to use ping tests if more information is required, but need to be aware that many firewalls and Internet security packages are configured not to acccept ping requests.

12. Keep sending data to Obsidian or publishing it here
Apparently 95% of people who play on PW's suffer this issue, so the more data and visibility we can provide, the greater the likelihood that Obsidian will assign more resources to resolve the issue. Please refrain from turning this issue into 'lets bash Obsidian', as that won't help them to fix the issue any faster. I am confident Obsidian want the transition crash issue fixed as quickly as we do.

Overall transition crashing for me has reduced from 4-7 hard crashes a night where I have to power cycle my machine, to 0-3 times a night. However I still suffer soft crashes to the desktop.

If you have any additional information please don't hesitate to share it with us.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Everyone can remove the DEX PLAYERS OVERRIDE folder from their overrides now. They are no longer needed there as they have been merged into the hak file.

Unfortunately, we remove these automatically using World Gate (when it comes to files types other than PWC, ERF, MOD, or HAK, we can only deposit or modify, we can not withdrawl). So at your earliest convenience, please remove them.

Thanks

Apprentice Age: 20 Joined: 16 Apr 2007

lag in this server is bad playing from UK, the ping is ok under 200 but ingame the delays are horrible Sad

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:31 am

Here is a list of guidelines i set up, that does not make you go all over the place.

http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/PW_Player_Guidelines

Its based on various servers recommendations, and what i've found on the official forums.

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 7:41 am

hatred i also found (prolly aware already) SoH adds campaing info to ur nwn doc file. in addition to the SoHui and the many hak and override files. also the pwc needs to be removed or ur gonna crash dex pretty frequent.

if this is anyindication of what pain said "other servers dont care" then i suspect other servers do the same thing. i only checked out SoH to c if i could garner any helpful info for dex.

i can pm u the same file i pm'd seed. like my comments indicate im not very intelligent i only have the desire. so i cant troubleshoot things to the extent a dm could. if u want it ask seed or pm me. im not gonna be active here.

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Thanks for the heads up Fair Vigil,

Quote:

SoH adds campaing info to ur nwn doc file

By nwn doc file, do you mean one of the ini files, or which file?

I wouldn't anticipate that their campaign, hak, or pwc would have any affect on other servers (from everything I've read. UI, definate potential for problems there, and override, definately. ),

I'll go there and get their download and will try to figure out some sound testing method to check out every aspect of it.

Below Average Joined: 28 Nov 2006

How about ? Graphical declines ( the overrides to remove buff animations) it is sticky suggested to use these and i dont anymore because im not to have overrides in folder for dex? but it says in sticky to reduce lag people do them. ????? some thoughts?

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 5:06 am

The less obtrusive spell buffs has repeatedly been recommended. Especially for laptops and such. I play on a laptop and i can say comparing with and without these reduce crashes by 90%.

Not every file causes crashes in override, only specific ones, but the ones other PW's love to install are the main sources of crashing. I'd rather not list the guilty files one by one, and instead say sef files only affect the client. Even ui files are less trouble, except they can trigger gui scripts on the server and some of these are buggy and are causing the problem.

So we could say files x, y, and z are bad, but you'll soon have a list of hundreds of specific files, all of which give the player no benefit. And we really do not want to test random files, which really even if they did work would not help you as a player and just make more bugs as you play.

The Hak file is filled with files for DEX, and we could put the less obtrusive buffs inside it. But if you got the best video card and a brand new gaming system you'll miss out on the eye candy. So it is left up to as a choice, and if you have a problem you'll find they make the game work much better. This is something that has been tested, and proven helpful on multiple persistent worlds.

If you want to put something else in your override, you are going to be causing some problems, especially if it's a bunch of random files which will be used instead of the files on dex. When these files don't match up, it does not result in your script going off instead of the dex one, in fact they both execute, and you temporily do what your version allows until the server side corrects the client. This causes major lag.

I would recommend reviewing the following which has guidelines for players, that don't require you to look all over the place. This has all of DM Hatreds, Dragoncoasts, and the ideas from the obsidian boards, and in the admin round table all summarized. If you do the things on this page i link to you will not be causing a problem as a player. http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/PW_Player_Guidelines

Stranger Gender: Age: 25 Joined: 14 Oct 2007

WTF, I did all what was said above. But when it loads module it says error problem loading module. Can someone help please. My system is more than good enough to run it. what can i do?

Dungeon Master (NWN 2) Gender: Age: 27 Joined: 10 Apr 2007

Hi frudillao,

have you done the things in this thread here? :
http://www.dungeoneternal.com/phpBB2/ftopic4520.php

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 1:02 pm

DM Hatred wrote:

Thanks for the heads up Fair Vigil,

Quote:

SoH adds campaing info to ur nwn doc file

By nwn doc file, do you mean one of the ini files, or which file?

its located in my computer/documents/neverwinter nights2/campaigns. its a rather large file i think. u said that the hak and override stuff shouldnt interfere but im not sure i agree. Im not sure like i said but there is alot of stuff they add everything from 2 soundssets to multiple placeables and other items and such. Also its in both my doc folder and my program files folder. Im sure you know all this stuff but i want to stress the feeling i have about the hak and pwc file is gained not from message boards but the fact i played pretty often. Once i got the game and once i compared two servers (de2 and SoH) i found the SoH files "if" forgotten would crash me outta game most trans but 100% in undreath. A bind in undreath and a messy hak and override would lead to eventually being unable to play and finally realizing this happened before and it was cause it was dirty w/ SoH stuff. I forgot to lose the dex and craft hak once in SoH and either noone moves enuff for me to notice or it wasnt a issue.

Lot of useless words in there sorry ;p ne ways np and gl.

Stranger Gender: Age: 25 Joined: 14 Oct 2007

yes i did all what it said there. it gives this crap message. error, problem loading module. wat the heck. it should be working. i heard of this BS with NWN2. always having to have this and that just to play a server. i like Dex, play nwn1 version sometimes, and wanna try out nwn2 version but ain't goin nowhere.